children who were born here but legally migrated here the immigration system failed. >> 100,$000 in cash prizes including a grand prize of $5,000, january 20th, 2021. first rules, tips and more information how to get started. go to our website, studentcam.org. >> the house select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis held a hearing on ensuring safe and fair election during the pandemic with civil rights advocates, public safety at work and missouri secretary of state among the witnesses. you testified on the importance of cdc guidelines voting early and mail in ballots and other alternatives to in person voting.

>> good afternoon, the meeting will come to order. without objection, declaring a recess of the committee, i recognize myself for an opening statement. this morning, we heard the president in his own words recorded in february slam the coronavirus has, quote, deadly stuff. yet we also heard remarks, i wanted to always play it down. i still like playing it down because i don't want to create a panic, end of quote. the trump administration did

play down the pandemic refusing to level with the american people about the known danger and refusing to develop and implement a national plan to stop the spread. as a result, 190,000 americans have died, continuing to kill hundreds, tens of thousands every day. over the last eight weeks, americans will be changing their votes in the midst of this ongoing crisis. a free, fair and safe election under these circumstances is a challenge. let there be no doubt we do our part, america is up to the challenge.

in june the centers for disease control and prevention issued guidance to keep people healthy while casting their votes. the fundamental principle that this guidance is, quote, reducing the number of voters who congregate indoors, in polling locations at the same time. and three key elements. first, cdc calls for alternatives to in person voting and includes voting by mail and drop boxes to select ballots. second cdc calls again for

increasing the number of polling locations available for early boarding and extending the hours of operation. third, cdc recommends election administrators maintain or increase the number of polling places available to the public on election day. of these simple steps are achievable everywhere in america and i am pleased both democrats and republicans make progress and implementing them. unfortunately, not every jurisdiction in the cdc's guidance. consequences of this refusal are predictable.

we saw what happened, the number of polling places, did not have alternatives to in person voting. in georgia, voters sent 5 hours to cast their ballots. in texas, about 7 hours long. wisconsin's largest city, 97% of polling places were closed, leading to long lines of the city's voters. in florida, 112 across the state were closed, moved or consolidated. these actions left many voters, especially women of color unable to exercise their right to vote.

we cannot allow the pandemic to be used as a cover to continue or exacerbate, the ugly history of voter suppression. in august, select subcommittee launched an investigation to determine the states, primary voters facing significant voters to cast their ballots made necessary improvements for the election. we are issuing a staff report with some troubling findings that must be erected. i ask unanimous consent that this report be entered into the record and without objections so ordered. in texas, local election

officials, waiting in lines for election day and reported that not having enough poll workers is their primary concern about their upcoming election. given texas's refusal to expand absentee voting it is crucial that texas take steps now to recruit poll workers rather than resorting to close polling places and reducing powers. georgia is making the puzzling choice not to mail out absentee ballot applications to all voters with the general

election, successfully doing so for the primary. the secretary of state claims applications to all voters lead to longer lines at the polls, but the reality is just the opposite. every vote who casts an absentee ballot is a voter who will not be in line at the polls. every state to follow cdc guidelines so all voters can cast their vote safely. the federal government has a crucial role to play. the heroes act, four months ago in close $3.6 billion for state and local governments for equipment and staff to safely administer the election.

they are located funds without further delay. the delivery for america act the house passed last month requires election mail be treated as first-class, restores mail service to previous levels and provides $25 billion has unanimously requested by the bipartisan postal service board of governors. unfortunately, rather than play a constructive role and prepare for the election sowing discord, fear and -- donald trump is claiming it will lead to fraud, the evidence shows americans likely to get struck by lightning more than to

commit voter fraud by mail. there is good reason the president has been unable to provide evidence to support his plan. there is none. mail in voting is safe and secure. benjamin ginsburg, a leading republican lawyer agrees, in op-ed in today's washington post, republicans don't have the evidence to call elections - he writes the truth is after decades of illegal voting, there is no proof of widespread fraud, at most there are

isolated incidents by democrats and republicans. elections are not rigged. absentee ballots use the same process as mail in ballots. different states use different labels from the same process, end of his quote. even while warning against fraud, the president is calling on his supporters to vote twice saying -- i quote here, send it in early and then go out and vote, end of quote. i hope all my colleagues today will join me and justice ginsburg in rejecting that advice and urging americans to

follow the law and those only ones. supporting a free, fair and safe election should not be a partisan issue. i am hopeful that we can use the hearings to agree on common sense solutions to protect americans's health and their sacred right to vote. i will now yield to my friend, ranking member for his opening remarks. >> thank you, mister chairman. appreciate you for having witnesses here. i start by sending my prayers to the people of southwest louisiana including lake charles who recover from the devastation of hurricane laura.

i personally witnessed this, met with local officials along with donald trump two weeks ago. they have a long way to go. a lot of devastation. everybody is standing with them and we continue to stand with those resilient people in southwest louisiana to help him as they rebuild their homes and their communities. let's talk about today's hearing. every american who is legally eligible to vote will have that opportunity on november 3rd and encouraged to exercise their right to vote as well. each state runs their elections, as we know, and it is our duty to ensure that our elections are run fairly, freely and safely. one of the ways we must protect every american's right to vote is to ensure the integrity of their vote and make sure that integrity is preserved by ruling out voter fraud which is well-documented.

we must make sure every american who wants to safely vote in person will have that right. i urge all members on a bipartisan basis to convey that message to the american people. 2020 elections will be conducted safely and fairly and urge all those who are eligible to participate. 7 months into the pandemic, the american people, remind us what it means to be an american, hold constitutional rights sacred. the pandemic will not stand in the way of americans exercising our first amendment rights. americans have the right to peacefully assimilate peacefully protest. americans must have the ability to exercise our religious freedom and the right to worship as we believe. as with previous pandemics like the spanish blue or military

wars or periods of unrest america will go to the polls in november. i spent a good part of august traveling the country talking to voters, and libertarians, americans are ready and motivated to vote. the elections will be held safely and fairly. instead of urging, losing candidates to refuse to concede which unfortunately we have heard recently as some are suggesting or trying to change laws in ways that would drag out the results for weeks and weeks, we need to ensure state laws that have been debated and honed over years are respected and allowed to be implemented fairly and efficiently. what people do not want to hear is one political party tempting to take advantage of a pandemic to try to ram through a

partisan election scheme that has nothing to do with this coronavirus. let's listen to the experts and let's follow the science. the unanimous opinion of top public health experts is in person voting can be done safely. on august 13th when asked if people could go safely to vote in person during this pandemic, doctor fauci said of carefully done according to the guidelines there is no reason why that would not be the case. there is no reason we shouldn't be able to vote in person or otherwise. on august 20th the centers for disease control and prevention director doctor robert redfield announced cdc put out guidance on how to safely vote in person. doctor redfield stated and i quote i think people can be able to social distance and wear masks and with the recommendations we have for hygiene, we don't see that there is going to be a negative

impact on your ability to vote from a public health perspective. i know i am going to vote face-to-face. in an interview on august 20 second doctor debra birx said it has been safe for me to go to starbucks and pick up my order so if you can going to starbucks in the middle of texas and alabama and mississippi that have very high case rates than i can't say it would be different waiting in line at the polls. a recent report from the brennan center for justice advises, quote, in person voting can be conducted safely if jurisdictions take the necessary steps to demise the risk of transmission of covid-19 to election workers and voters. all my colleagues will take the opportunity to highlight cdc guidance for safe in person voting. they put out really good guidelines showing you how to safely do this just like safely going to school, you can

educate people in person, some choosing to do it and some denying kids that opportunity and we talked about that in this committee, mister chairman. just on the same level i would urge we follow the guidelines for safely voting in person. there are options for people to vote. you can request a mail in ballot, vote early in many states, they have those opportunities or you can vote in person as many want to do. we ought to be promoting those guidelines. look at the example cdc put out in these guidelines right here. in sure that poll locations are adequately staff to cover sick workers, provide hand sanitizer for use at each step in the voting process. encourage voters use masks at polling locations. here is mine, you will appreciate the colors, mister chairman that i will send you an extra if you want, i know

you've got one of your own. post signs in highly visible locations that promote everyday protective measures. remind voters on arrival to put space between themselves and others, have plans to ensure social distancing. these are things in those guidelines and more if we follow you can safely vote in person. all my colleagues remind voters since the beginning of march when donald trump declared a national emergency due to the pandemic, 37 states plus the district of colombia have successfully held statewide primaries for president order and state offices. .. into different elections we have had in last few months in the state of louisiana. i did it in person. it was a safe experience. i brought my son with me as i normally do. we ring our children with the so they can see this great democratic process and there was never a worry. i wore my mask, so did the poll workers, it was a very smooth process. i would encourage people to do that. wisconsin held a very successful election at the height of the pandemic on april 7.

a peer-reviewed study published published in the august issue of the american journal of public health concluded that in person voting in wisconsin's election by more than 400,000 electors did not produce a detectable search in coronavirus cases. we should all be following that science. we establish procedures for absentee voting. early voting and in some states voting by mail. america is ready to go vote. many states vote by absentee ballot or thel request mail ballots because procedures been in place for each state that doesn't fit all handle it a little differently but those systems have been worked through years so they know how to do it properly, safely, efficiently. we should inspire confidence in thosesp procedures. there is simply no pandemic related reason to change the way we vote in 2020. given the the topic of today's hearing entering a free, fair

and safe election during the corona pandemic we could stop right there. we know how to do it. states are doing it. we should helpc them do it. but ourt democrat colleagues dd not want too join with us today and send a bipartisan message. they want toss go back to advancing a bill h.r. one, this is something democrats have been promoting since last year long before this pandemic that does all kinds of things to mandate that states change the way most of them do business. requiring think that most states don't want to do haven't done because the actually make elections less safe. they reduce the integrity of elections. let's talk about it. they want tote mandate ballots,e mailed to all registered voters during this emergency. that as i outlined is dangerous point a review by judicial watch in early 2020 found 378 different counties nationwide have more registered voters than voting age citizens.

378 counties. that's millions of ballots that would be out there illegally. who knows what would happen to them? but that's a staggering number, 378 counties nationwide have morent registered voters on ther role than voting age citizens. people say there's no opportunity for voter fraud. more than 20 million mail in ballots went missing, went missing in the last four elections according to data collected from the election assistance commission, the federal commission that identifies more than 28 million ballots that justes gone missin. who knows what the end of it in the end about box, afterthought of the statesd where weeks and weeks after the election there was still counting votes. some of the jews get mysteriously showing up untilslt changed the outcome of an election. do we really want to go to that level where there are billions of ballots come in this case 28 million mail in ballots that

literally went missing? those are staggering numbers we should all be concerned about as we want to promote fair free and safe elections. that's what. we should be focusd on. we don't want a recipe for disaster where we literally would be counting ballots weeks and weeks later they would be showing up from who knows where as we saw in states. in state. we saw in florida, california, new jersey people are going to go to jail for voter fraud. there's all kind of cases that are cited. in they end why do we put a fos on helping those dates conduct fair efficient free and safe elections for all americans who are legally eligible to vote. i yield back.o >> i think the recommended for yielded back, and nowg i would like like to introduce our witnesses. washington. levels,vism spans many

serving as a cochair of the nonprofit organization, when we all vote and producing the document he "inside look" legal battles for civil rights to work at the ground level. to encourage voters to cast their ballot. havee also honored to kristin clark, president and director of a committee for civil rights under the law. we are also grateful to be by the president of the texas civil rights project. by a -- thejoined assistant professor of medicine at the medical university of south carolina. the global health

committee of the infectious disease society of america. she was one of the primary forors of the guidelines healthy, in person voting. havei understand you recently joined the faculty at the university of south carolina, so i'm pleased to welcome you to charleston and the sixth congressional district. finally, i'm pleased to introduce the missouri secretary of state, js croft. welcome, secretary. un-mutedsses will be so we can swear the men. fascists swear them in. please raise your right hands. stopear them in

please swear that what you are to -- is the truth, the whole truth. showhem -- let the record the witnesses answered in the affirmative. without objection, your written statements will be made part of the record. thank you. we will now turn to ms. washington. you are now recognized. you,ashington: thank chairman clyburn, ranking member scully's command member's of the select subcommittee. i'm grateful for you taking the time to hear my testimony and the testimony of my fellow witnesses. i'm here not as an artist or entertainer, but as an american and an advocate who believes deeply in the power of voting. that is the reason i became the cochair of when we all vote, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing participation in every election and it's why i'm

here today. when i turned 18, my mother and father took me out to dinner in the bronx, where i grew up, not just to celebrate my birthday, but to celebrate the fact i was old enough to vote. my parents never took their vote for granted. they believe it is a sacred obligation and it is. not too long ago, an 18-year-old black woman would not have been able to vote for many reasons. as you know, the legal age of voting used to be 21 years old, so you could get shipped off to war without having any say in who your commander-in-chief is. as you know, women were denied the vote. we only just celebrated our 100th anniversary of women earning that right. and of course, it used to be that black people in this country could not vote. when our constitution was written, are fending fathers designated black americans to be worth 3/5 the value of a human being. as an 18-year-old black woman, i voted and i will proudly vote

this november because we all share the right and responsibility to vote in order to shape this democracy and bring us closer to a more perfect union. our ancestors fought to widen the circle of people who could vote and now, on our watch, it is at serious risk of contracting. as you all know, there are many reasons for this. from gerrymandering to voter roll purges -- in georgia, more than 300 thousand names were purged from voter rolls last year alone. a study found 63% of those names, nearly 200,000 american citizens in georgia, were some may call that a mistake, but it is impossible to ignore there exists a strategic effort to disenfranchise voters, that is what we are up against. like people's experiences of voter suppression have always been the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, if we do not

direct those expenses, we are at risk of losing our democracy for everyone. all of that was true before covid-19, we are now facing a perfect storm of circumstances that will make it harder for people to vote, in the lead up the- in the lead up to vote, we have the opportunity to make voting more easier and fair, many states are taking action, we need others to follow their lead. as members of this subcommittee i believe there are three things you can do to help states meet the challenges they are facing. first, you can make your voices louder than the voices of leaders who disparage voting by mail, while voting by mail themselves. you can tell the people that using these and other methods to vote is not fraud, it is their right. second, you can appropriate more money for so -- election administration so that states

can run polling sites safely and afford voting counting machines. nonpartisan granted center for justice recommended that congress make at least 4 billion available. finally, many of you have paid tribute to congressman john lewis since his passing, i believe, the single best way to honor congressman lewis's legacy is to continue to fight for the expansion of the voting rights act. in closing, i would like to speak directly to american voters, i note that this is a time of great uncertainty and you may wonder how best to make your voice heard at this moment. voting is how you make your voice heard in these halls of power. i can tell you there are more options than ever to cap -- cast your ballot. it is important that you vote, that you vote early, that you encourage or friends, family,

and neighbors to vote early as well. that is how we fight voter suppression by exercising our rights to vote and voting for representatives who represent our best interest. today, i am here asking our representatives in congress to do everything in their power to make our election safe and secure, but we must also do our part. we cannot sit this one out, so please make a plan, do not wait until november, you were vote matters. you matter. thank you, again. thank you very much, miss washington. , you are now recognized. dir. clarke: ranking members on the coronavirus crisis, my name is kristen clark and i serve as the executive director of the lawyers committee for civil rights under law, thank you for the opportunity to testify on

the actions that must be taken to ensure a successful election during the pandemic. the lawyers committee for civil rights has been at the forefront of the battle for equal rights since its founding in 1963 at the request of president kennedy to enlist the private bars leadership and resources in combating racial disco nation, simply put, our mission is to ensure equal justice under the rule of law. we have been a leader in many of our nation's most seminal voting rights battles and we also lead election protection. the nation's largest -- largest and longest running voter production program anchored by the 866-hour vote hotline. since march we have filed two doesn't lawsuit stupor -- to protect the but -- right to vote. i am here to sound the alarm of the dangers we face as a democracy should we fail to

fully confront the barriers that millions face amid the pandemic. nearly 200,000 americans have lost their lives. a disproportionate number of them are black, latino, and elderly. the primary season makes painfully clear that many states are simply not really -- ready for the general election, state need resources, guidelines, and reforms to get this right. turned oute, voters in homemade face masks and plastic argent -- garbage barks. ,n georgia, pulsars opened late in texas and florida we saw severe full worker shortages since bold -- older americans declined to serve. nowstance is needed right to pull voters back from the brink of disenfranchisement. thisge congress to provide

$3.6 billion in funding needed to ensure that states have the resources necessary to conduct the selection. -- this election. many are in distress, the call for this has been bipartisan and it is needed to address pull worker shortages to ensure ppe -- in polling sites. we also need congress to fund the u.s. postal service so that they can handle the millions of a vote by mail ballots expected this season. we have sued the postal service over great concerns regarding 11th hour policy changes made under postmaster general louis dejoy's watch. that is ongoing, congressional oversight is critical, too. inaction at the justice department when it comes to voting rights, we need congress

to set baseline protections for states. at this stage, all states should be providing no excuse absentee voting. earlyst two weeks of voting and meaningful voting options on election day, but many officials have failed to adequately respond to the pandemic or lack the resources to do so. sadly, georgia is the poster child for this dysfunction which has led to a widescale disenfranchisement especially of black voters. last-minute polling changes, poor staffing, the use of an out-of-state under who made multiple errors in the handling of absentee ballots. voters who just never received their absentee ballots that all riddled the georgia primary. extension inll our several counties and sued to secure an extension and we do not need a repeat of this in november.

in wisconsin, thousands of voters did not receive their absentee ballots and the problems were especially acute in milwaukee where poll sites were reduced from 180 25 leading --ers standing in five leading voters standing for hours without assistance. these are widespread and systemic. issuedonse, the cdc common sense guidance for states civilligns with the rights community. we applaud of those states that have already taken action to vote during this pandemic by eliminating barriers by voting by mail. foring in place drop boxes ballots, extending early voting days, relaxing deadlines, hiring a next generation of poll workers, investing in a new election infrastructure, and

providing voter education so that voters know their options and their rights. some states have not yet implemented those recommendations and we urge that they do so immediately. the right to vote is the bedrock of our democracy. 12 days ago i stood at the lincoln memorial to commemorate the 1963 march on washington. the tie that binds those who attended this march -- profound belief in the power of having your voice heard by your election officials. confronts ation perfect storm resulting from an unprecedented pandemic, the stress from ongoing police and racial violence, we must ensure that all americans have voice at the ballot box this season. thank you. : thank you very

much, ms. clark, we now turn to --maziani.army thank you, i appreciate the good work of my fellow witnesses. i am the president of the texas civil rights project and i've been asked to update the preparation on the for the state of texas during -- november election. unfortunately, and as detailed in my written testimony, state officials are failing to serve -- to fulfill their obligations. worse, taxes and texans will not be equally impacted by their choices, instead, our black and latinx communities who are already struggling from

higher rates of code infections, who bear the brunt of this suppression. i want to highlight two key areas where texas has bucked guidance from cdc and other experts. first, texas has fought tooth and nail against any expansion of voting by mail. today, texas is just one of six states that has failed to open up remote voting options even after multiple lawsuits and reprimands from a both state and federal judges. only a lawyer can love the texas final- supreme court's confusing word on the subject, the court told us that every voter must decide for herself as she -- if she is eligible to claim a disability. can be immunity to covid one criteria, but not the full criteria, election officials are supposed to take the voter at the word. once she checked that box confirming that she has a did is

-- disability that makes voting in person dangerous to her health. election officials have been left to deal with the wreckage. voters have to navigate a confusing standard and a clunky, decentralized system that was not the four pandemic level needs. in addition, multiple legal barriers potentially block mail-in ballots from being counted. this includes a prohibition on drop boxes which forces voters to primarily rely on the overwhelmed postal service. this includes the requirement of a certified doctors note, but only for voters who get sick within 10 days of election day. that discriminatory laws ballotcal partisan voters unfettered power to deem your signature invalid and to trash your ballot without even giving you a chance. officials also

have to navigate this complex legal web, while preparing to ate -- for what will still be surge of voting by mail and this is all without any help of guidance from the state. that is not quite right. there is one official who has been very outspoken about voting by mail, our attorney general ken paxton who also served as cochair of the civil lawyers for the trump organization has repeatedly threatened to prosecute voters and civil society organizations for running afoul of these bewildering vote by mail rules. this abuse of power is a shockingly inappropriate. combined with this texas supreme court standard, paxton's threats were -- will almost certainly scare away voters with serious health conditions. particularly voters of color who have been targeted by this community in the past. week, paxton did use

the power of his office to limit mail-in voting, he sued local stop them from sending vote by mail applications to registered voters even though officials often plan to send elegant -- eligibility guidance, he constraints from that texas supreme court decision. taken some texas has steps to make in person voting safe and accessible, most notably by adding an additional week of in person voting and needs to be commended for doing so. here is my second point, the states approached to polling places and poll workers is not enough. for instance, state officials have been silent about the need to increase the overall number of available polling places despite the cdc recommendations to do just about. troublingrticularly given the track record, since

the 2015 supreme court decision free ofuld leave taxes any oversight, texas only has 150 polling locations. sadly, the laces were black and latinx publishers are growing faster are the places where they have expressed the vast majority of these closures. does before the covid pandemic that further complications of voting. we heard from the chairman that arer -- fewer voting places leading to longer wait times, in those long lines we saw on super , they lasted seven hours. november, those lines can't be dealt with. [indiscernible] the state can and should take immediately to mitigate this route concern -- this concern.

time for texas to step up to this moment, i would be happy to answer any questions you have. rep. clyburn: thank you very much. ippali, you to dr. k are new constituent of mine, i want to make sure you are -- i am pronouncing your name correctly. dr. kuppalli: yes, you are. rep. clyburn thank you, you are now recognized. dr. kuppalli: thank you for the committee for the opportunity to testify before you today, i am externally grateful for your interest and commitment toward helping support the novel efforts in in these the united states as we attempt to contain this disease and make sure we have a safe election for all citizens on november 3. on behalf of the infectious disease society of america, i

work closely with the center for voting for protecting which i'll discuss today. with over 40,000 cases of coronavirus today across the united states, we must take bold steps to limit human transmission to improve the health of our population and economic recovery of our country. nationalrespect in our response to coronavirus now, the less worse the transition will be for election day. specifically i recommend the following options, the federal government instituted a national mandate requiring the use of masks or face coverings, expanding contact tracing capacity, increase the supply of disparities,health and provide support for individuals in isolation and quarantine including sick, food, and access to medical care. in this era of covid-19, health concerns have the potential to skew voter participation in less we provide a viable in person voting.

additional options should be made available including mail-in voting, longer voting, more polling locations, ballot drop boxes, and more voting. for those individuals who would prefer to vote in person, the following recommendations are based on evidence from science and public health to minimize risks. first, a uniform, evidenced based health message about what voters should expect at bowling site is critical. messaging should emphasize that hand hygiene, distancing, and safe -- face masks that cover the nose and mouth are important in preventing the transmission of coronavirus. shouldn officials consider the following, polling available told be everybody to avoid overcrowding the number of polling locations should be increased. polling locations should be

relocation -- relocated from senior living facilities to protect older adults who are at risk. relocated tould be a well ventilated areas that can accommodate the necessary physical distancing measures. there should be plans to minimize lines and there should be unidirectional flow into and out of the location with a liminal -- limited number of entrances and exits. it should be cleaned with an epa approved disinfectant, special attention should be given to places.ssure -- people should be given disinfectant wipes so they can sanitize the services. possible,- where voters should be provided with disposable pens and all voting locations should have supplies to support healthy hygiene.

there are actions individual voters should take as well to memorize the risk of transmission well voting -- while voting. if a person is unable to vote by for, they should check other voting options. check for special requirements prior to attending the sites. they should use hand sanitizer and -- in each step of the voting process and they should arrive to the polling location alone, early, and be prepared to wait. aey should try to vote during clear time such as the midmorning. we know there will be sick individuals present on election day, for these people, alternative voting options should be provided to minimize the exposure of a voters and poll workers to coronavirus. designated be a polling site or curbside voting and we should also consider having on-site testing available

for sick individuals. [indiscernible] remainment of porkers, should be scaled up and jurisdiction should be used to recruit porkers especially at low risk populations. all porkers should be trained on how to use ppe and individuals should be -- concerned about the snow health care should consult their health care providers. after election day there should be -- [indiscernible] the current pandemic is an unprecedented event in our lifetime, a free, fair, and safe election can be achieved with for ansan support evidence-based approach to the voting process. we encourage proactively coming up with an election plan, nobody should have to choose between the right to vote or to be

healthy. we have the evidence, knowledge, and science to keep our public because we must use it one a new infection is one too many, thank you again for the opportunity to speak to you and i look forward to answering your questions. rep. clyburn: thank you very much, dr. we would hear from secretary ashcroft, secretary you are now recognized. you ashcroft: thank distinguished members of the committee for the opportunity to virtually join you today for this important distraction -- discussion regarding the coronavirus. i would also like to thank the other witnesses, and though i did not think to put it in my comments when i was trying to do them last night as i was traveling, i want to especially thank the staff for the work they must've done, i'm sure that both on the minority and majority side there were staffers that worked over there vacation time to do this and set this up, i really appreciate

their hard work. i would like to thank congressman blaine luetkemeyer who is my representative in the united states house of representatives. my name is jay ashcroft on is my honor to serve as missouri's 40th secretary of state. as secretary of state i am the designated chief election officer for the state. in 2020, looking officials have already held three successful elections since covid-19 began. the presidential preference primary in march, local elections were postponed from april to june, and the august primary election. missouri elections are administered by our 116 local election authorities who are elected or appointed and they -- make all logistical decisions. this includes a number of polling places needed, porkers, how many face shields, tables, chairs, and bottles of hand sanitizers are needed. in fact, during two weeks in may

i drove more than 5000 miles and visited every one of missouri's election officials to distribute more than 17,000 face masks, 17,000 face shields, 40,000 distancing trips and more than 500 gallons of hand sanitizer. by all counts, our officials have done a wonderful job sanitizing polling places and voting areas, providing physical distancing, and looking for creative solutions to improve traffic to voting locations. other states may have difficulties with having adequate polling places, but that has not been a problem in missouri. some of our officials have actually increased the number of polling places and others have moved to larger facilities to provide for better foot traffic and provide adequate space for physical distancing. missouri election officials have promoted curbside voting and have even tested the logistics of drive-thru voting. i have been impressed with the forethought and commitment to ensuring the health of voters

and porkers alike. like -- pollwor kers alike. milwaukee election officials reduced the number of polling places from 180 down to five, they examined the rate of covid transmission following that election, in fact, the data showed a decrease in covid infection in the two weeks following the election. does saying that voting that to covid, but the data shows there was. no increase . in addition to making election safe, in 28 teen -- 2018 i proposed a lot to reduce the lines for voters on the u.s. postal service. ofsked to allow in email their absentee ballot request instead of having to mail it in and i asked them to move the

deadline to request an absentee ballot earlier by one week to reduce the likelihood that service issues would affect a person's right to vote. thankfully, those changes were passed and signed into law, that said, i have concerns about promoting the use of mail-in ballots. it is not a perfect system, what we see in missouri and nationally is that in every election, at least 2%-3% of ballots received by mail are rejected. did notrs signature match, maybe the ballot scan did not properly read the ballot, for every 50 ballots cast by voters, at least one of them, statistically, does not count. for every 50 of those voters, one of them is disenfranchised. i will encourage voting in person, it is safe, and it guarantees that your vote will count. elections matter, both matter, each one that is cast should be counted.

in every election there is an instance in which a candidate won by only a few votes, we have seen this in missouri, notably in kansas city in 2010. we have seen blatant absentee ballot fraud in st. louis in 2016, so much so that it required a second election which changed the outcome of the election. i cannot speak for other states, but in missouri we have proven three times in 2020 with cooperation from voters, we have -- we can have a successful in person voting on election day. i encourage voters elsewhere to protect the integrity of voters elections, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you today. thank you very much, sec. ashcroft and thanks to all of our witnesses today. into a.ow going to move of questions and answers. ofh member -- a period

questions and answers. each member is going to be allowed five minutes to ask questions and receive answers. by me giving myself five minutes. expressing are tremendous fear, i hear from them every day and i assume many of you do as well. withstates do better masking and social distancing than others. fear and the the discouragement that a lot of people have received in the primary season when they found out at the last minute that there polling places have been closed. and of course, a lot of system russian tactics -- a lot of

suppression tactics that have been used. case saysth carolina that they performed with almost surgical precision in carrying out their suppression. now, miss washington, you have spoken directly with you have spoken directly with the voters in communitiesmm of color to encourage them to vote. what concerned are you hearing from voters, and what is your message today to voters were wondering how they can vote safely? >> thank you, chairman clyburn. yeah, i have spent time in michigan and virginia, and quite a fewan places in our country. i think in this environment what voters want tois know is what opportunities they will have devote and whether their votes will be counted. of course it varies from state to state as we've all talked but no matter where you live, voters should have safe

options to vote and be educated about those options are. i would say to voters today that i am doing my part by being here speaking with the committee. the committee, you were doing your part by listening and hopefully taking action. so voters need to do our part as well. voters need to check registration status can find it with the deadlines are in the particular state, figure out whether early voting is an option and then make a plan to vote. and if i may add, i really helpful way to do all that is visiting vote without a word.ha a nonpartisan website that tells voters everything they need to know about how to vote. >> thank you, ms. washington. i've noticed you mentioned michiganan and virginia. but if my memory serves i think your roots are in beaufort county south carolina. you are welcome to come and help there. in fact, her uncle was my debate coach at south carolina state

and so i think you do is whole lot of favors coming back to your roots and help encourage voters here in south carolina as well. let me ask though of ms. clarke. what should state and local officials be doing now to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised in november? >> we need to not repeat the mistakes from the primary season, and we shouldhe take lessons that we learn from the primary season to ensure a successful general election inry november. in short, we want to ensure we are providing three avenues to the ballot for voters this season. one, we want streamlined accessible vote by mail.re we wantwe postage-paid envelopes to voters. i applaud those dates that are

making this process easy why automatically mailing absentee ballots to registered voters. in addition to streamlining the absentee ballot process, we want at least two weeks of expanded in person early voting. we know that for many voters in our country, particularly for black voters and voters of color, the experience of voting in person is distinctly important. sovo having expansive early votg opportunities is critical. and if we get all that right then we will ease the burdens that t election officials face n election day itself. we want an election day where voters are not subject to long lines. we want to ensure that they're able to socially distance. we want to ensure that they know where to vote, given many of the last-minute polling place changes this season. if i can, congressman, i'm

sharing and mh from atlanta during the primary season. this was a long line of park tavern in atlanta on june 9. these are voters who waited hours to cast their ballot. we don't want a repeat of that this season which really, it encourages us to getet it righty agent providing expansive early voting opportunities and getting vote by mail right. >> thank you for that. secretary ashcroft, i noticed you mentioned that the legislature responded very positively to your suggestions about how we might enhance early and absentee voting. did you all use any of the money -- i think $4 million of cares to support that? >> we took about half the money

that we received with the latest cares act money to help with local election authorities to use however they thought wasas best to up with their elections, with making sure they had tpe, plexiglas shields, more poll workers so we would have to reduce polling places. and then we held back about half of it to pay for the cost of increased use of absentee and mailil ballots so the local election authorities don't have to bear the burden so we can bear that for them because we expect more people utilize non-in person voting. >> you would say that you were able to carry out these new procedures at no cost to the state?e? >> there is some cost to the state. there is a match at 20% from the cares funding, but we have not seen it as being an insurmountable burden to us.

missouri doesn't need more federal funding. and if we were to get more federal funding now we wouldn't be able to use it well because we don't have enough time to implement any sort of changes that we do that. what congress could do if they wanted is maybe make a commitment to backstop if there are overages of costs for states that we don't foresee now after the election. >> thank you very much. my time is expired. mr. rankingve member, you are nw recognized for five minutes. >> okay, thank you, mr. chairman. i first want to start by thanking all of thema poll workers. every time i go to the polls we all as we vote we get to know our poll workers they are usually our neighbors and they come in early, , whether your sx in the morning until 8 p.m., stay whatever the hours are,, they work those long hours to help us carry out this great democracy that our country

enjoys. there's been for years we've seen a shortage coming. i know our secretary of state has talked about this in louisiana, maybe other states, where it seemed like some of the poll workers that are getting older, there are not as many younger people coming to meet we can also encourage people to become poll workers because that have had an we issue with for years now. i what you think of those polled workers have done this year in and year out and we will be doing this again in november and make sure we give them all the safety protocols that they need. i want to start with ms. washington because i don't know if she knows it or not but she and i actually are linked together in history. we both had roles in the movie ray which was something louisiana. i think her role might've been a little more prominent than mine, but congratulations. jamie foxx, i got to work with him for a few days. he won the academy award and did a great job and so did you. thank you for come to louisiana

and being a part of making that movie. and for the work that you do to encourage people to vote. i think it's important. however, people are going to but we should all be encouraging people to exercise the, right o vote and inn each state to give you multiple options. those options are there for important reasons. they arey debated heavily in state legislatures and it works so i secretary of state can carry that out properly. so i think we need to do and we can to encourage people. there's never been more opportunities to go legally vote and exercise your right to carry out this franchise that our country is built upon. so thank you for the work that you were doing there, ms. washington. >> thank you, and thank you for your acting expertise. [laughing] >> you have done a a little ber than me there in that regard. i want to ask mr. ashcroft, i know you have been secretary of state in missouri carry out the job that also purchase estate do so well. louisiana secretary of s state,

i've had a great working relationship with them and us e is needed things through the years that especially through covid we have worked as well and i'm sure you have worked with plain look at mark and other members into delegation. in terms of the things you need to carry out state election in this environment i would imagine you're their experiences with primaries during these last few months. what of the things that seem to work really well and you been ahead of the secretary of state association i think of the republican side so you hear stories from other members. what are you paying from secretaries of state, things they need to do to make sure we can have that in person opportunity just as well as the other early voting options there are for people? >> as an engineer it's just a logistical exercise. how to get people to location, given time-to-market and securely count those. we follow theth guidelines of te cdc to give people space to extra poll workers come to a large polling places to remind people to keep the distance. we have reached at two manufactures us out to disinfect

equipment and use one-time pens and that sort of things. it's common -- >> although cdc guidelines that we talked about earlier, these guidelines for from cdc that put out, i think some of the things you just mentioned. i now want to bring to the other point that is a big concern of a lot of people and that is the integrity of the vote. as any of us vote as we could anybody who's legally eligible to vote, if somebody does cast a ballot illegally it undermines the integrity of our vote. i think that's the other part of this that we can't just ignore, i know some people try to minimize it or say it doesn't happen. we know it happens. there are cases in new york just last year. people bribed nonresidents to falsely register and vote.e. in pennsylvania you had an individual who was picking people up and convince them to fill out applications for deceased people. in maryland, a noncitizen was found guilty of voting in

multiple, ten different federal elections. on and on we see these stories. the routing of voting fraud is important, taking shall we at the federal level don't force states to do anything that would undermine their integrity of the elections is important as well. we talked about in my opening statement the 28 million ballots that have gone missing in los angeles county. there was just a court order recently where they were forced to remove 1.5 million people who were on their roles illegally. it wouldn't remove them. the court made them remove them because if you got that opportunity for fraud, it happens. what have you seen especially with other secretaries youou hae talked to? >> when we see about product or from people pay people to register, paying people to vote to people changing absentee ballots, r we had statehouse rae we had avenue election in the city of st. louis were a judge looked at all the evidence of fraud and allegations that

people voted when they said they had not come over to that election and the election was totally different when it was done correctly and indeed a different individual one. >> thank you for that, treachery. i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you very much. the chair now recognizes ms. waters for five minutes. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i'm so pleased that you're holding this. hearing today. it is so important that we put as much time and effort into encouraging people to vote and encouraging them to have options. so in june the cdc issued guidance for preventing the spread of covid-19 during elections. the cdc recommended that state and local election officials, quote, offer alternative voting methods that minimize direct contact and reduce crowd size at

polling locations, quote-unquote. quote-unquote. voting by mail is the safest option for avoiding the substantial health risk associated with in person voting during this pandemic. several jurisdictions already prepared to accommodate widespread voting by mail. for example, this fall my home state of california will mail every registered voter about based on lessons learned from expanded mail in voting during the march primary, california has implemented a statewide tool to allow voters to track their mailed ballot and receive notification about its status, including whether there any issues that need to be resolved. additionally, california counties will have more time to process mail-in ballots adventure and accurate count. so i am so pleased that my friend ms. kerry washington is here today.

ms. washington, a resident of california, has always given of her time and her effort whenever she's been called on, not just now encouraging people to vote and talking about the alternatives and insisting people having alternatives. whenever we have called on her in our communities to assist us in any way, she has been so generous, and i want to thank you for being here today. it's a good to see you. >> thank you. >> now, many states like california have sensibly decided to expand voting by mail during the pandemic. some states have implemented policies that deny millions of voters the opportunity to vote by mail and thereby protect themselves and their families from exposure to coronavirus. so i want to move to ms. marcy ottey. can you describe --

[inaudible] that limits mail in voting and effect of these policies they will have on -- [inaudible] states to exercise rights -- [inaudible] >> yesterday. thank you so much. so as a note in my oral testimony in my written testimony, there is been a multi-month battle around voting by mail and who is eligible. going into covid, texas one of the very few states that required an excuse to vote absentee by mail. and then that small subset, most other states expanded eligibility requirements. texas, as i said, and other organizations in court refused to dohe so. today we aret left with a really murky system for voters to try to administer themselves. and then on top of that, as i said, we have a really

inappropriate situation of our attorney general threatening prosecution for voters running afoulte of unclear, complicated rules. and on topes of that you have te state pretending as if we are not going to see an increase in vote by mail. we saw 100% increase in some counties in our primary runoff elections in july in voting by mail. but the state has not issued any best practices to theny countie, has not -- we have a patchwork ofwo vendors in different counts pick someie counties are as interested in using their own printers to try to process these things. what it means is we are about to layer on top of, you know, some bad audits to start with. i actually agree with honorable secretary ashcroft in saying a lot of there is holes in vote by mail that

already exist, and so we layered near confusing stand and we laid on top of that a surge -- we know that is coming but we haven't anything to do with it. >> thank you. thank you so very much. i want to remind us that president trump as repeal he tried to undermine the confidence in mail-in voting that will lead to widespread fraud andot abuse. this is to put it mildly nonsense. according to analysis by mit, over the past 20 years there have been only 204 cases of absentee ballot voter fraud out of0 250 million votes cast by mail. ms. clark, are you aware of any incidences to support the president's claims of widespread -- [inaudible] >> thank you, congresswoman. it is notable that president

trump himself just recently voted absentee in the state of florida. his wife is voted absentee. ivanka and jared kushner have voted absentee. attorney general bill barr has voted absentee and absentee dates back to the 19th century our country. when we allow people during wartime the opportunity to cast their vote by mail. -- [inaudible] 143 ballots over 20 years. you know, that amounts to .0006% of fraud. we should not be disenfranchising millions of americans given our countries long track record of success that dates back to the 19th century in allowing americans to have their voice heard by mail. >> thank you very much.

the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair now recognizes for five minutes mr. luetkemeyer. >> thank you, mr. chairman. l and welcome to my good friend, secretary of state ashcroft. good to see you. today's hearing topic is very interesting and, quite frankly, very telling. right after the select committee on the coronaviruste was reformd -- form the public and members as ami chairman to hold a hearig on a virus and their actions at 11 virus to spread to the rest of the world. we were told select committee on the coronavirus now lacks a mandate to review the origin of the virus. passportco a couple months and e subcommittee is limited lacks the ability to discuss where the virus came from now has jurisdiction over elections. if there ever was a question as to whether this committee is politically focused, today's hearing is making a crystal-clear break this not

about election security what about my colleagues on the other sides attempt to spread fear and showed out and the results of dishes election before singled what has been cast. it's not spreading misinformation, conspiracy theories and manufactured crises ranging from supposedly sabotage of the postal service to the dangers c of in-person voting,, dangers that apparently don't exist, violent protests. on a positive i'm pleased again to welcome secretary ashcroft of my home state and discussed the success he has experience with voter participation and election integrity. under his leadership missouri have strengthened voter ids las what experiencing record voter connector more missourians are voting editing it safely at the in person. secretary ashcroft, you mentioned that in march 20 what presidential primary that missouri saw 60% increase in voter participation, ice about the status of her head with an incumbent president on the

ticket. was this due to an expansion of mail in ballots. >> is no, it was not. it was participation of individuals feeling safe to vote in person. >> many of the members of this committee say that if you increase election security you suppress voters. of course that's not the case in missouri but you discuss what the 26th voter id law did for voter participation. >> yes. in 2016 the people of the state passed a constitutional amendment to allow a photo id to be required for voters pick since that lies been passed in missouri we have provided free photo ids to individuals need them along with them underlying document and we no longer people being turned away when the vote because they can't prove their identity. every election we have a least a handful of people who would've been turned away under the old law by now they are allowed to vote and their vote counts. >> one of the things mail in ballots it seems there's an increase in the number of folks to participate that way.

do you believe this will cause a delay in the election result? >> it is entirely possible that we are doing everything we can to stop that the late rum occurring, but they take more time to count. we could be waiting days. >> what kind of actions are you takingng for things that you're thinking about to be able to minimize that delay? >> we are working to make sure we have more two-person teams, a republican at a democratic or through those ballots that are mailed in. .. five days before the election, depending on what we're seeing we will have results delayed. rep. luetkemeyer: do you believe as a top election authority in , and as the chairman of the organization, do you believe by the >> do you believe that by the delaying of election results that this would -- people would lose faith in the integrity of our voting process?

>> yes, i do and when they do that, they're less likely to participate. when we scare people we have voter disenfranchised. >> and i think that you mentioned at that there were 2 to 3% of the mylan votes are rejected and that would make a good case for voting in person if there's a problem with the process somehow where something goes wrong in that. >> we see that nationwide, the best way to make sure your vote counts, the way you don't have to worry about signature or sending it to the right place with the post office, if there's a problem with in-person voting, you may correct it. >> one of the concerns i had a moment ago, ranking member scalise have 300 more registered voters than they have citizens. as the chairman of the secretary group, what -- is there a program in place, are there concerns?

what was the action, if any, was taken by your group to try and find a way to minimize that situation? >> i know that individual secretaries of state at least in my party know that the rules are clean so the experience on election day are as fast as possible. >> with regard to fraud and main r mail-in ballots, in georgia, i guess it was, there was a thousand people with voter fraud or voted twice or mail-in, is that information you've had. >> there was a concern with that, we had an election overturned four years ago the candidate that supposedly lost, lost by 3% and the judge looked at the fraud in the absentee ballots and the one that lost

then won by 75%. >> and talking about struck by lightning, and i don't know about struck by lightning-- >> hit by lightning, i don't kn know. >> i'm quoting the site on that, and i understand my republican friend sometimes has a problem with that. chairman now recognizes for five minutes. >> okay. can you hear me now? thank you so much, mr. chairmanment this year -- thank you, mr. chairman. this year we should not talk about election day, but election month. many are expected to vote

early, there' much more to do. eight states do not offer in-person early voting. only half of the states allow early voting on the weekend and others offer fewer than two weeks of early voting or limited voting hours. the pandemic is still killing hundreds of americans each day. c.d.c. guidelines say election officials should, and i quote, consider increasing the number of polling locations available for early voting. and extending the hours of the operation, end quote. doctor, why is it so important for states to follow public health guidance and expand early voting? >> thank you for that question. so, it's really important for states to-- to early voting. we want to limit the number of crowds on election day and so

by expanding early voting, this will allow people to vote at different times and that will look at the number of lines on election day and we know that with coronavirus, the duration and intensity of your exposure increases your risk of getting the diseasement so -- disease. so that's why we limit the alternative numbers to voting. >> early election makes sure that everyone allows to cast their ballot. mr. chairman, i look at north carolina, longer lines would increase wait times and other problemsment without objection.

>> thank you. thank you. i would like to give a special welcome to miss carrie washington and i know she's from the great state of south carolina, california and also from the great city and state of new york and we're so proud of all of your efforts to expand voter rights and participation. w why, miss washington, are long lines on election day a problem? and what are you doing to help encourage voters to make sure that they cast their ballots? >> thank you so much for the question, chairwoman, i went to high school if your district. i know that some long lines can be exciting, thrilling to see so many people participate in our democracy, but fact is that long lines can be challenging, particularly during a pandemic because a person's ability to make their choice, to make their voice heard should not depend on their ability to wait in line.

some americans are differently abled. some can't risk getting sick and some have children at home and unable to leave. some will have to can i have up a shift in their job and meaning they won't be able to put food on the table that evening. so it's important to support early and absentee voting. americans need options, especially in this moment of uncertainty. the 2020 election is not going to-- it should not stop for covid-19 and it will not so we need to make sure that voters need plenty of options to safely and effectively cast their ballots. with the quote about lightning, that was referenced from the nonpartisan grenen center for justice and referenced, and the center was referenced earlier by ranking member scalise, so it's a trusted source that about lightning and low incidents of fraud and voting by mail. >> thank you so much.

in texas, governor greg abbott extended the early voting period by nearly a week, yet other states, including florida have refused to expand early voting. ms. clark, are states doing enough to carry out c.d.c.'s recommendation to expand early voting time periods and hours? if not, what more should they be doing? >> states are not doing enough. this pandemic has up-ended life in every reject. it up-ended how we work, how we go to school and up-ended our elections and we need officials to do more. i want to talk about congressman scalise's good state of louisiana where african-americans have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. they make up about 32% of the population, but 50% of deaths. and while there are about 13 days for early voting during the primary season, that number will actually now be reduced by almost half to seven for the

general election, subjecting people to greater risk. no voter should have to choose between their health and exercising their right to vote and the good state of missouri. right now, webster university is actively recruiting notaries because there are certain voters who have to have their absentee ballots notarized in order for those ballots to count. in the good state of tennessee, my organization, the lawyers committee for civil rights under law is suing because the state literally criminalizes people for the act of distributing absentee ballot applications. there's so much more that people can do across the board to lift the unnecessary restrictive, discriminatory and unconstitutional barriers to the franchise amid the current pandemic. >> your time has expired.

thank you, i yield back. thank you, mr. chairman for calling this important hearing. thank you. the chair now recognizes for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thanks for our witnesses for being with us today. very grateful. the hard-working hoosiers want to see us do real work, like holding the chinese responsible for virus and now that we're having another hearing on this is disappointing. every american should be able to vote and ballot counted and that ballot should be accurate. the notion that we need a federal mandate, it's another attempt to use the coronavirus for another end.

and dr. fauci, birx have said it voting could be done safely. we've seen it done in april. and residents in wisconsin insisted on allowing voting. and democrats called it a moral atrocity. you know what happened. despite the hyperbole and gloom and doom predictions by the c.d.c., showed no increase cases attributable to in-person voting in wisconsin. over the course of this pandemic, millions of americans have voted in person in all of our state's primaries with no surge in cases and death proving over and over again that voting in person can be done safely and that is the science. if the science says in-person voting can be done safely, then the last thing we need is for the federal government to come along and mandate a universal mail-in voting. this is an irresponsible scare

tactic. democrats have cheered as thousands of people took to the streets in protests and yet those same democrats are telling everyone it's too dangerous to vote in person. you can't have it both ways. the fact is that dr. fauci said in-person voting carries the same risk as a trip to the grocery store, and i'm thinking, if we're talking about-- if it's safe to protest, if it's safe to go to the grocery store, it's safe to go to starbucks, it's safe to vet in pers -- vote in person. and we've allowed instead, in-person early voting for 28 days in order to reduce lines and exposure. this is the hoosier common sense that we need and i'm grateful that our secretary of state lawson has stood by that to maintain our safe elections. secretary, as the only witness today that has to run an

election, are you and your election officials in your state aware of the c.d.c. guidelines which outline procedures to ensure safety when voting in person this november and are all of your polling places able to operate under those guidelines? >> yes, we are aware of those, we disseminate those to our local election authorities, we give them what they need to meet them and i just have to say anyone that believes that every vote matters, if you're telling people to vote my mail you're not believing that every vote matters, votes will be lost by that. if you believe every vote matters you should make sure your constituents should know to vote in person safely so the vote will count. >> and secretary, again, you're the only one on this panel today that's run an election. so, can you talk about the problems that ensue when you have the media and you have democrats out there telling people that if they go vote in person, it's going to kill them? just from the experience that you've had and in that false

scenario that they're purporting. what kind of problems does that have for you when you're running the election in your state. >> the first thing is as an election authority i want to only put out true information to my voters so they can make their own decision as to what they want to do because it's their vote and it's disingenuous and wrong when they're lying to people how their vote is faken care of. it's safe to vote in person. if you vote by mail you have to worry about the post office, whether you filled out the ballot correctly, if it has to be notarized. if you accidentally voted twice for one line instead of one person. you don't have to worry about that in person. you get a second chance, when you vote in person it's safe. you run it through the scanner, the vote has been cast and your vote matters. >> i appreciate it. mr. chairman, i yield back my

time. thank you. >> the chair now recognizes mr. foster for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and to our witnesses, especially those who have highlighted the fact that voter suppression is a problem that is orders of magnitude larger than any concerns over potentially fraudulent voting either by mail or in person. as many of you know, my father was a civil rights lawyer who wrote much behind the civil rights act much 1964 and it's great to see the struggle for voter enfranchisement for every voter is taken up today. i'm a scientist. it's a scientific fact it will be safer to vote by mail than in person. the vast majority of americans believes where to vote should be a personal choice that should be available to all citizens. mr. chairman, reports from the national academy of sciences

and engineering and medicine raised a concern about the risk of the spread of the coronavirus through the air as well as the relative contributions of droplet size of transmission remains unknown. so, mr. chair, i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record, a science magazine total quote you may be able to spread coronavirus by just breathing, new report find. this has been distributed in advance to all members. mr. chairman, i requested the-- putting this into the record. >> without objection. >> thank you. now, the degree of increased risk from voting face-to-face depend on the level of community transmission, which of course depends on having competent national leadership, but it also depends on implementing the best practices at polling locations. so, doctor, you've taken a

leadership role in the infectious disease society of america to issue joint guidelines on healthy, in-person voting. what is your reaction to the apparently real risk of purely airborne transmission of covid-19 and what does that mean for keeping voters and poll workers absolutely safe at voting centers? >> thank you, for that question. as you alluded to, we're still in the early ages of the pandemic. we're still learning a lot about the transmission dynamics of this disease so there's still a lot of debate in the scientific community about droplet versus airborne and whether or not that is the route of transmission. in terms of keeping people safe, we know the best way to keep people safe is decrease the rate of community transmission in the time leading up to the election. the rates, the safer that

people will be. that will be by good hand hygiene, universal face masking. we had a report come out from the institute of health medicine that shows people were to take up wearing face masks that would decrease the rates of transmission by 85% and then picking up physical distancing. and those things we need to do and get a national plan for in advance of the election. >> now, yes, and so no matter what guidelines you follow, the probability will never be absolutely zero. this is just a fact. life has risk and that's real, as was mentioned previously. going to the grocery store has risk. it's important that their situations are different. someone can be young and healthy and have frequent

contact with an elderly person. if that person, if they're forced to vote in person as to the rules, and then getting the virus and spreading it to someone because of their family situation they're connected to. and so, is that pretty much, you know, a correct, up avoidable fact. given the transmission of this virus? >> yes, it is and we have to remember that people can spread this asim matically. so we know up to 40% of people can have asymptomatic infection to the highest and people feel completely fine during that time. so everything you said is correct. >> yeah, and it's also true that we must ensure that cities and states have the resources they need to carry out, you know, the basic steps to protect the health of voters and election workers and congress provided a significant down payment on election funds as part of the cares act.

miss clarke, isn't it true that every single state requested provision under this that they thought was an unmet need here? >> every single state requested funding and funding so that they could do things like enhance vote by mail. deal with ballot printing, and ballot posage, provide drop boxes. provide staffing to help handle the high volume of mail. and i actually testified at a recent hearing with an official from. st. louis, rick stream, who said that expenses are up in his jurisdiction and sales taxes are down. and that money might very well be put to use. so we've strongly urged congress to provide that $3.6 billion so that no state can point to the lack of resources as a reason for disenfranchising voters this season. >> thank you, i yield back. >> thank you for yielding back. the chair now recognizes dr.

green for five minutes. >> thank you, chairman. and ranking member. and to our witnesses. i, too, am concerned about the topic of election security and safety in addition to the usual threats, cyber hacking, voter interference and frauder fraud. the coronavirus pandemic poses issues, and that we can have in-person voting as was demonstrated dr. birx has said, i can tell you it's been safe for me to go to starbucks and pick up my order. if you can go to star buckets in the middle of texas and alabama and mississippi that have high case rates then i can't say it would be different waiting in line in the polls, end quote. a recent report from the liberal leaning brennan center for justice advises, in-person voting can be conducted safely if jurisdictions take the necessary steps to minimize the

risk of transmission of covid-19 to voters and election workers. look it, if you can buy groceries, you can vote in person. if you can buy groceries on-line for at-home delivery because of a medical condition, you can ask for an absentee ballot. the effort to conflate absentee voting and person requests a ballot, to a mass mailing, there's a different between them. i urge my colleagues to stop fear mongering, look at the facts, in-person vote something not only safe, but the most secure way to vote. vote by mail opens up our elections to all kind of vulnerability. in the golden state the election integrity project california said that governor newsom's vote by mail executive order will lead to 458,000 ballots going to california who have moved or are dead.

this is a recipe for disasters, for fraud. now, the democrats who say voter fraud does not exist, i enurge can you to visit the heritage foundation's website which has a data base, 1,285 proven cases of voter fraud. not only does it exist, but it can affect election outcomes and we witnessed this in north carolina, where the state board of elections unanimously ordered a new election in the 9th after a harvesting of ballots. and in florida, convicted for keyersing voters for ballots for him. takoo a swing state that's often a nail-biter from 2013 to 2017, 56 elections in ohio resulted in a tie vote and 86 were decided by a single vote and last year alone the ohio secretary of state referred 18

cases of duplicate voting to prosecutors for voting twice in the 2018 election. voter fraud is real. and it can sway elections. this shouldn't be a partisan issue, sadly instead of strengthening voting security, experience show that mail-in voting can have massive dd can be easily forged. and they care more about winning the election than inat theing grilt. they want to sanction our elections under the powerful hand of the government. had r-1, and this would make america's elections even more vulnerable to foreign interference and cyber attacking. i'm proud of tennessean at steps our state has taken to protect the vote of every tennessean. we've implemented common sense security measures, voter i.d. prove of residence for first

time voters and requirements that voters be registered in advance of election day. tennessee has also announced a $1,000 reward to individuals who report voter fraud. it won't be tolerated in tenness tennessee. this effort to force california's clearly flawed system on tennessee will not be tolerated. nowhere in the constitution does it grant this body to tell tennessee how to run our elections. if california wants to allow ballot harvesting and in their election, that's their business. don't you dare try to tell tennessee what we should do. i urge my democratic colleagues to stop political games and stop sewing distrust in america's institutions and to stop trying to use the federal government to hijack state and local elections. thank you, mr. chairman, and i yield. >> mr. raskin. i will remind you dr. green, i know the history of tennessee

when it comes to voting and to south carolina. >> mr. chairman, clearly, that was when democrats ran the state of tennessee, that hasn't happened since the republicans took over. thank you for bringing that up. i'll have you to know i know very well the history of tennessee under democrats and republicans and the history of south carolina and of course, i'll tell you that all of those people who left the democratic party because of the 1965 voting rights act, that's why they left, and so just to remind you, republicans-- mr. raskin. >> mr. chairman, before my five minutes of questioning i had would request if that's okay if i do it before my questioning. >> yes. >> okay. >> you can do that. >> unanimous consent to enter into the record political fact article june 2020 which we circulated the title "the

misleading claim that millions of absentee ballots end up missing or in land fills", this article makes clear that colleagues often repeated claim that 28 million ballots was misleading, a mischaracterization, quote, quote, mostly false. the vast majority were mailed to voters and never filled out as the article states, uncast or unreturned. there's no evident that these led to fraud. i'd like to submit that for the record. >> without objection. thank you for calling this, it's amazing the president who knew that covid-19 was, quote, deadly stuff, but deliberately suppressed the truth about it, and said it was like the common cold and which is magically disappear, because he didn't want to, quote, create a panic is now six million cases later,

190,000 dead americans later trying to create a mass panic about the election and electoral fraud when he is actively promoting election fraud and voter fraud, egging on his supporters to go to the polls and to illegally vote twice and he's done this on numerous occasions, equally amaze to go me that the president and his sycophants continue to try to deflect responsibility from the president of the united states for this unprecedented health care catastrophe and debacle by pointing at china when it was president trump who on 37 different occasions defended the chinese government, dedefended president xi defended the chinese party. and i've submitted those documents. i'm with the minority members of this committee. let's have a hearing about it. if they want to further disgrace and humiliate this president who has brought

america to its knees, by all means let them do it, but this is the president who's defending the chinese government from the very beginning. now, mr. chairman, it seems to me that the -- that our colleagues are also chasing a mirage, they keep talking how we're demanding universal mail-in balloting, all of the states have already settled on their system. we live in a system of federalism. the states already have their laws out there. let's not confuse the public. let' try to help the states to deliver in these atrocious circumstances brought to us by the president of the united states and supporters. georgia told the committee that it needs 20,000 poll workers, but a state program is so far only identified 5,000. wisconsin needs 30,000 poll workers, but doesn't think that it can make that in pre-visionally planning to get help from the national guard. i want to ask ms. clarke, what is being done and what can be

done to get poll workers, especially young poll workers, to the polls at a time when we know the vast majority are over 60 and i think over 70. what can be done to help the states concretely. >> it's time to recruit that next generation of poll workers. we've seen this so many vulnerable older poll workers who played their part, but had to bow out because they're incredibly vulnerable under the pandemic. there are civic and nonprofit organizations that are working night and day. but frankly, cone did its part and allocated that 3.6 million to the state and could enhance what they pay poll workers and better encourage people to serve, their efforts to encourage students to sister of this season, but frankly, we need congress to do its part. put the money in the hand of

states so they can do their work and run their elections. >> well, i appreciate that, but the house and majority took the position that we needed $4 billion to the states, the g.o.p. opposed that. we ended up with only 10% of that figure, 400 million. we've continued to argue for 3.6 billion in the heroes doc, but again, the minority party continues to drag their feet because they don't want to see full funding of the election so that everybody can go out and cast a vote and get their vote counted. ms. washington, i'd like to turn to you. what are you doing to try to encourage young people to fill the role of poll workers, as many of the older poll workers are advised not to go to the polls? we know that older people are disproportionately vulnerable to this lethal disease. >> thank you so much for the question. it's such a vital issue that requires addressing. i believe last week was national poll worker recruitment day. i was part of a really strong

social media campaign, working with power to the polls, where we were able to garner hundreds, hundreds, hundreds of thousands of volunteers. so, we're really, really committed to the idea of having more people work at the polls. the young people and i think it's exciting not only because younger people have a different risk level when it comes to the coronavirus, but also, we know that when people volunteer or in many cases get paid to work at the polls, it's extra incentive that people need to know about that you can be paid to work at the polls, that when people get involved as poll workers, their investment in their democracy increases. >> thank you. >> they feel excitement and power. thank you. and ms. clarke, i want to ask you, finally, a lot of our overseas uniformed people in the military, their votes are counted late because they come in from overseas. and yet, it seems like the next rush within the trump push is

to say only the ballots count that are cast on election day at the same time that we're trying to prevent the counting of ballots or count early. what is the importance of making sure that we had that election day is basically halftime and in democracy we count every ballot cast including from the military overseas who the president considers suckers and losers. elections are hotly contested and coming down to narrow margins and it's critical that we cast every vote no matter whether it's counted-- cast by mail or cast during early voting or cast on election day. making sure that every american's voice is counted, it's critical. in virginia, we recently had an election that was so close, that it was decided by a coin toss. >> i yield back. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. the chair now recognizes

mr. valasquez for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's timely and important hearing. anded chair and small business committee, i just finished my congressional hearing. so i'm glad that i was able to get back to be able to add some questions. so to the witnesses on this important issue. ms. clarke, the polling place closures during the 2020 primaries have a disproportionate impact on minority voters. >> thank you, congresswoman. they absolutely did. and i want to share an image from louisville, kentucky, jefferson county, kentucky has one of the largest populationings in the state. one of the largest black populations in particular and

with one polling site serving this entire county that is home to louisville and at 6 p.m. with polls closed, the people were literally racing from their jobs and banging on doors of the expo center to ensure that their voice could be heard. it's critical that we ensure that communities of color in particular are adequately served by appropriate numbers of following polling sites. i'll share images from milwaukee wisconsin on april 7th, 2020, outside of marshal high school, you have largely black voters in barge garbage bags waiting in rain, because they reduced to 180 to 5. this is a widespread form of voter suppression in our country and during the pandemic we have to make sure that voters of color are adequately

served by adequate number of polling sites. >> thank you. doctor, how can the closure of polls impact health risk for voters during the pandemic and what should states do to reduce this risk? >> thank you for that. when we have less polls, longer lines. having longer lines and people waiting longer that increases their risk of being exposed to coronavirus. ap obviously we don't want people to have to be developing coronavirus, getting coronavirus. so, that is-- [inaudible] we recommended actually increasing the number of polling locations and that way people decreasing the risk of being in contact with

coronavirus. >> and given on going challenges recruiting poll workers during the pandemic, some voters are still likely to face long lines. miss washington, what advice would you give to voters who want to make sure they cast their ballots safely. >> thank you so much for the question, congresswoman. i know that many millions will vote in person on november 3rd and many forced to wait in line and to those americans, i guess i would say i've been there, i've stood in line myself. and it's worth it. because we have to remember that when you stand in a long line to vote, you have a chance to elect someone who can make it easier for you to vote the next time around. so you make a plan, wear your mask, pack your lunch, and perhaps your dinner, bring a pair of comfortable shoes,

bring some water, and stay in line. but i would also call on federal and state governments to do everything in their power to expand voting access and there are three actions they can take, first, make voting by mail and absentee voting available to every voter without requiring an excuse or a witness. second, expand early voting. both in-person and absentee. third, make voting on election day easier by extending the hours that polling locations are open and following the c.d.c. guidelines to keep those places safe. >> thank you very much. i yield back my time has expired basically. thank you so much, mr. chairman. thank you very much. the chair now recognizes mr. kemp for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman, appreciate you pulling this

together. are you able to predict the magnitude of the virus, the outbreaks it would be on november 3rd. are you able to predict that at the time? >> so thank you for that question. i am going to-- the fact i'm not a modeler, i'm an infectious disease doctor. i cannot personally tell you where the outbreak would be at that time. i can tell you we're very concerned that over who,000 confirmed infections a day that things are not going in the right direction right now. we're also concerned with what we call a twin demick, with us headed into the fall with coronavirus and also with increased number of coronavirus cases that we're seeing in

college communities now whereas we start sending students home that that could be an increased number of cases in other communities. yes, no, i can't predict it, but there are a lot of things that are very-- >> i share a lot of your concerns and i've talked to other experts and they've said the same things that you did. no one in the country is going to be able to perfectly predict this and there are variables out there, like the ones you mentioned and the virus can spread quickly, and can literally be days and weeks in which an outbreak comes together. so, for me, what keeps me up at night is exactly what you said, the concern about a second wave, later on this year. i know you've studied this in terms of the history in our country and how we've gone through this before. and you know, having been, you know, being from new jersey, worrying about us hitting some type of level threat that we in

new jersey in march and april and have that concern back in late october or november. i pray that doesn't happen. that's something very much on my mind. i ask you, do you believe it's possible for parts of our country to suffer from serious outbreaks in late october, into november. that could potentially limit the ability for people to be in-person? >> that's a really good question. i think that there is definitely the possibility that we could have a serious outbreak later on in this fall. i think, again, what we've talked about before is the way to vote is going to be voting by mail. this is the way to prevent transmission of coronavirus. and implementing all of these other ways of voting also to help with the transmission of coronavirus. that being said, we have to make sure that we have in-person voting and the way to have safe in-person voting is

by making sure we have hand sanitizer available, making sure we have everybody wear a face mask. we've seen wearing face mask decreases transmission of the virus and making sure we have physical distancing. those three things alone and making sure we implement the measures and have good disinfection and sanitation measures of polling locations will make a huge impact and making sure we can get the community transmission down as low as possible in advance of the election, by the things in my written statement would be imperative it make sure we have a safe and healthy election. >> thank you, doctor for that. >> miss clarke, building off what we heard, and i wanted to see if you agree with the assessment it would be prudent policies to take the contingencies across the

country and ensure that any outbreak that happens doesn't disenfranchise people and force them to risk their health to go and vote. in particular, i wanted to ask you about drop boxes for ballots and the broader effort that we've talked about today. >> as a civil rights lawyer fighting to protect the rights of vulnerable communities oofr day, two things i know are true. one that this pandemic is it having a harsher impact on black people, latino people and vulnerable communities and it's alive and well, and it's important that we work that all communities have access to the ballot, not just on election day, but both during early voting and streamlined voting absentee by mail as well. one last thing, because my time is up here. yes or no. is there any merit to the

concerns with fraud when it comes to drop boxes and ballots. >> no, absolutely not. drop boxes are used in many communities across our country. they are safe, they are secured. thurm -- they are monitored by officials and they are ways to submit absentee ballots across our country. >> thank you, mr. chairman, i yield back. >> thanks to all of you for your questions. as the chair new recognizes the ranking member scalise for any closing comments he would like to make. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and again, i want to thank our witnesses for participating in this hearing. mr. chairman, there were a lot of things brought up during the hearing that we had today that i think, first, should be addressed on some of these, i know a few members on your side referenced a series of comments made by somebody who's peddling

a book right now out of context of the president and we seem to hear this politically charged environment and going after the president on anything whether it's valid or not. talking about whether or not the president downplayed anything relating to coronavirus, dr. fauci was just interviewed while we were having this hearing. the doctor asked him, are the reporter asked him did you get a sense that he was, the president, was or wasn't down playing this. this was dr. fauci from an hour ago, no, no, i didn't, i didn't get any sense that he was distorting anything in my discussions with him. they were always straight forward about the concerns that we had. we related that to him. when he would go out, i'd hear him discussing the same sort of things. he led off and say we just got through with a briefing with the group from the task force, and we would talk about it. these suggestions that people

throw out, anonymous sources that turn out to be debunked i wish we wouldn't peddle in the conspiracy theories, i understand it's had a hyper charged environment and we should be sticking to the fact. this president's record, by the way on the military is so much stronger than presidents we've seen recently, especially the previous administration, this president led the charge to rebuild our nation's military. give troops a pay raise, give them the support they need. they were dying in training accidents. our men and women in uniform were dying in training accidents by a five to one margin more than in combat under the previous administration, this president has had their back and so many of those fronts. now let's talk about voting, it seems that some still want to peddle this myth that the post office can't handle the volume, that there was some kind of issue with the post office. that more money is needed for states. first of all, let's go to the post office. we know know you, they pointed

out in multiple hearings, no one disputed it they have more than enough money to not only get through the rest this have year, but even to the middle of next year, even if they don't get another dime. money to care aout a fair election and there are some states and pointed out and i wish this hearing-- there are some states-- [inaudible] that have -- who have been able to go identify where they require too late of a time to submit the mail-in ballots. for example, some states, one or two days before the election, they can let you mail a ballot in which means days or maybe weeks after ballots are mailed in. we saw this with california, harvesting, more than three weeks after the election, three weeks after the election, there were races overturned that one person was winning the night of the election by six points and a week later it's closer and a week later, ballots keep

showing up mysteriously, three plus weeks later, the ballots are still showing up and then the election results change, and then surprisingly, no more ballots show up after that. i don't think the american people want to see a case where we have to wait weeks and weeks to get the result from some states. let's let the states take care of their election ins a proper way, give them the tools they need. in the cares act, mr. chairman, we gave states billions of dollars that they still have. there's probably over 75 billion dollars of the $150 billion we gave states, that is still available to those states. not one state has run out of that money. that money, by the way, mr. chairman, can be use today make sure that under covid, as we have additional needs, to safely allow people to vote in person. if they need sanitizer fthey need masks, all of those things are covered under the money we already appropriated. some people keep throwing billions of dollars around as if this was monopoly money.

we don't need to send them more money. there's money sitting in every state's coffers right now that can be elegybly used to safely run elections if there are additional things that they need. if they run out of money, then that's a conversation we can have, but not one state has run out of the billions, 150 billion that we sent them. so i think that's important to point out as well. as we've heard from a number of our witnesses, we also heard from different study, talked about different studies that are out there. that talk about the problems, if we were to, for example, mandate, and i agree with so many of the witnesses that americans have more options than they've ever had before to legally vote. we need a fight to make sure that that's maintained. if are there problems, let's go and address them in those particular states. but if you want to go vote in person, that option is there. dr. fauci, dr. birx, the doctors say you can safely do it. that's your choice like i've

exercised and so many other people have exercised just in the last few months. if you want to mail in a ballot you can request a mail-in battle and each state has their procedure and they debate these in the states and the states run the elections and the states know what they need to do to ensh your that people can legally vote in those states. if we were to have a one size fits all mandate that every person on a voting roll is mailed a ballot. we know, in i state will tell you whatever the percentage is, there are millions of people that would be sent ballots that aren't on the rolls. for nefarious reasons, people move, people die. and los angeles county cited over a million and a half people illegally on their rolls in one county and wouldn't remove them until a judge finally forced this em to clean up their rolls. 28 million you've heard the numbers of ballots that justice

peered. where they are, who knows. but again, is this the kind of environment we want? what we should be doing is working with the states to make sure they have the tools they need. we sent them over $100 million and they still have money to run safe and fair elections in person. many of them expanded opportunities, for voting in other ways as well. but just this idea that the federal government should make states run a california-type system, when again, weeks and weeks after the election in california, results were changing, that's not something that instills confidence among vote voters. it's not only that we ensure the confidence of that vote, but that no one is going to nullify your vote with an illegal vote or you'll have to wait weeks and weeks. and this is america, we love democracy and promote democracy and believe in the peaceful

transition of power, that means we respect the results that we get. not denying the results of the election, getting the results on election night and continuing to move our country forward. with that i hope we will be able to work together on those challenges and address these other false issues that have come up to identify them as well. with that, mr. chairman, i yield back. >> thank the ranking member for his closing statement and for yielding back the time. let me close by thanking all of our panelists for their remarks here today. it was very instructive to hear miss clarke and miss-- both voting rights advocates and doctor, an infectious disease physician agree on the same basic steps, that should be taken to prepare for the

november election, indeed, as ms. washington has testified, voters are simply asking for voting options in order to cast their ballot freely, safely, and fairly. this testimony was consistent with the c.d.c.'s fine space guidelines, urging early voting and more polling places and more options for voters to vote by mail or by drop box or as we've done in south carolina, established satellite voting places during the month of october. these recommendations are sensible and will minimize the risk of the coronavirus for voters. i ask are unanimous consent into the record, the select

committee has received in support of these recommendations from the national disability rights network. these measures are especially important to ensure that americans with disabilities are able to safely cast their votes. hearing no objections, so ordered. with election day less than eight weeks away and early voting gunning much sooner, state and local officials must act now to adhere that these recommendations or effectively implement them. they must expand mail-in voting, drop boxes, and in-person voting. while recruiting poll workers in order to maintain or increase the number of polling places on election day.

given the virus' more harmful impact on seniors, younger americans must be recruited to serve as poll workers in greater numbers than ever before. i urge every american who can serve as a poll worker this year to do so. your democracy needs you. we know that there's still work to do to prevent a repeat of long lines that forced many voters to wait five, six or even seven hours. in fact, i recall the gentleman down in texas said it took him seven hours to cast his vote, but he stayed there to cast the vote. i recall seeing people banging on windows in kentucky, getting their one minute after the time

because they had to work and being locked out of the voting. i would say to my colleagues that's not what i call fair. that's not what i call supporting this democracy. we all agree that that is just wrong and we must do better. i remember some may-- i remember when beauford county majority african-american and nobody of color holding any elective office in the whole county. john lewis, our late colleague, beaten within minutes of death trying to register people to

vote. at a time when alabama was almost 40% african-american, less than 2% of african-americans were registered to vote. that's not fair about you that is what we've inherented-- inherited and so many of that came rushing back in after the supreme court-- we all know that there's a problem in many communities, many states with people being allowed unfettered access to the vote. and i recent anybody telling me that a local, state will resist the federal government telling them how to run the elections when i saw the federal government denying my parents,

both college graduates them to vote because they didn't know how many of their bubbles were in a bar of soap. that's the kind of state law that we are-- have inherited and so, i want us to hopefully think about this democracy we're trying to preserve. are we in pursuit of a more perfect union or are we backtracking on that pursuit. our democracy depends on all of us. without and without that and without objection, all members will have five legislative days in which to submit additional written questions for the witnesses through the chair. this will be forwarded to the witnesses for their response. i ask our witness to please respond as promptly as you're

able to. this hearing is adjourned. >> the first presidential debate between president donald trump and former vice-president joe biden is tuesday, september 29th in cleveland. then they head to miami for the second debate on thursday, october 15th. the third and final debate will take place thursday october 22nd in nashville, tennessee. all the debates begin at 9 p.m. eastern and you can watch them all live on c-span. you can watch live streaming and on demand at c-span.org or listen live with the free c-span radio app. we take you live now to the u.s. senate where today lawmakers will be working on several judicial nominations. at 11:30 eastern they'll hold a confirmation vote for todd robinson to be u.s. district court judge for southern california. live to the floor of the u.s. senate here on c-span2.

the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal lord, ride into our hearts today and fill us with your power. lord, give us such strength that we will face life's difficulties with faith, hope, and love. may our lawmakers so embrace